Forget Italy, Now We're a Week Behind New York City!

Since deaths from coronavirus have leveled off in Italy over the past days, the press no longer says we're a week behind Italy, but a week behind the new epicenter: New York!

USA Today says many states are on a "similar trajectory" as New York:

Looks like leaving Colorado when I did was a good move.

Kidding aside, though, why are people in Trenton, Telluride or Tampa now a week behind New York (City) and not (northern) Italy? Or the UK, or Washington state where it first landed here, or any other place on earth? The answer is clickbait.

Pathologist Dr. John Lee describes disease trajectories in The Spectator:

Those trajectories for the flu level off and come down, just as coronavirus is starting to do in Italy, and just as it's done in China and South Korea. Washing your hands, staying home if you're sick and social distancing all seem like good practices to avoid spreading illness, and we should all be doing those things, but to what extent they're flattening the curve, and whether we need a shutdown, nobody knows.

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